THE BLOGGING BLUES

Blogging can be a total roller coaster.

Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down.  Sometimes your traffic spikes and grows, sometimes it plateaus and declines.  Sometimes you have tons of new ideas and stories to share, sometimes you have total writer’s block and nothing to say.  Sometimes you feel confident, sometimes you feel discouraged.   Sometimes you achieve the goals you want, sometimes it seems like everyone else gets there first.  Sometimes you feel like you’ve been given the best job in the world, sometimes you start to wonder if this is where you’re supposed to be.

(You might have guessed where this is going…)

For a handful of reasons, I feel like I’m riding the downswing again.  Some might call it burnout.  I call it “the blogging blues”.

Trust me, this is not unchartered territory for me after 4 years of blogging.  I’ve been there before.  And when other bloggers write to me about this, I’m the first to assure them that these sort of seasons don’t last forever, and things will swing up again.  (And that if you’re a blogger, these sort of ups and downs are pretty much guaranteed, so it’s wise to anticipate this roller coaster as part of the industry.)

But the fact remains that I’m simply not feeling it right now.  Don’t worry, traffic is fine, income is fine, my blog is fine, but the blogger in me is not.  I don’t feel like I have much to say.  I feel like everything has been done before.  I question if this is the field for me, and whether my voice needs to be heard amongst so many other talented bloggers out there.  I compare myself to bloggers I admire who seem to “have it all”, and find myself falling short.  I feel like I can’t keep up.  I doubt myself.

In a nutshell, I just feel kind of discouraged.

My instinct when these seasons come (which I credit on being good ol’ 3 on the Enneagram) is to try and “do” everything I can to change the situation.  I convince myself that I need to work harder, work smarter, put in more time, push myself, and basically do more in order to “fix” whatever seems to be the problem.  Achieve, achieve, achieve.  When I’m in a healthy place, this sort of personality instinct can be motivating and fruitful.  But when I’m not, I end up spinning my wheels and end up absolutely exhausted.  (Which I am right now.)

I mean, let’s be real.  The truth is that there’s really only so much you can “do” to turn things around, especially in the world of blogging.  And really, what I need to do (if anything) is just be patient.  And keep putting one foot in front of the other.  And trust that  (as one blogger recently noted) this really is a marathon, not a sprint.  And that the best thing I can do is stay true to myself, and do the best that I can.  That’s really all any of us can do, right?

I’m trying to remind myself of that multiple times a day this week.  But sometimes it’s just hard.  And sometimes I simply get discouraged.  And rather than pretend like everything is bright and shiny and oh-so-perfect, or offer 10 easy steps to bounce out of a slump, sometimes it’s helpful to admit that there are seasons that are challenging.  That’s all.

So anyway, if I’ve been a little quiet on this blog lately, that’s why.  Hakuna matata, I’m totally ok and will bounce back from this blogging slump sometime soon, guaranteed.  But for anyone else who might find themselves ever experiencing the “blogging blues”, just thought I’d offer a little post to let you know that you’re not alone.   And to remember that your blog is not your identity.  And that this season, too, will pass.  And, as my favorite character says in Finding Nemo, we’ve gotta “just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”… :)